Rob Horowitz: Romney Aide’s Resignation Highlights Importance of Marriage Equality Fight
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
The abrupt resignation last week of Mitt Romney’s recently hired and highly regarded foreign policy spokesman Richard Grenell reminds us that while much progress has been made in the fight for full equality for gay Americans, there is still a long way to go.
An outspoken neo-conservative, Grenell served ably as President Bush’s spokesman at the United Nations. He was recommended to the Romney campaign by such neo-conservative luminaries as former UN Ambassador John Bolton.
However, the fact that Grenell is gay combined with his strong support for marriage equality generated an outcry against his hiring by some social conservatives. Bryan Fischer, Policy Chief for the American Family Association tweeted, “Romney pick a loud gay as a spokesman. If personnel is policy, his message to the pro-family community drop dead.” In an ugly echo of the pre-civil rights era, Mr. Fischer appears to believe that gays should "know their place." There were many other more toned down, but similar expressions of opposition.
The Romney’s campaign response was to put Grenell on ice, excluding him from conference calls with reporters on foreign policy, until the controversy died down.
This was understandably unacceptable to Grennell and he decided to depart.
By all reports Mitt Romney and his campaign staff wanted Grenell to stay, but they weren’t going to use any political capital to stand up to the social conservatives and provide the backing Grenell needed to do his job. Their approach amounted to hoping that in time it would all blow over.
As a result, a well-qualified person lost his job simply because he was gay and known to be an advocate for full equality for people regardless of sexual preference. There was no hint that Grenell, a seasoned professional, was going to use his position as a foreign policy spokesperson to advocate for gay marriage. Just as Grenell worked for George Bush who was a strong gay marriage opponent, he would have been a team-player in the Romney campaign understanding full well Romney’s similar opposition..
While there has been some outrage about the Grenell situation in the more liberal parts of media and some disappointment expressed by conservatives, the over-all response has been muted. In reality, the Grenell situation puts an exclamation point on the fact that the fight for full equality of opportunity for gay Americans has not yet been won.
And that fight now centers around marriage equality.. Achieving marriage equality is fundamentally an issue of civil rights. To fulfill the promise of America, gay Americans must have the same rights and opportunities as the rest of us and that includes the right to marry.
This issue is now being fought-out on the state-level and Rhode Island is one of the key states in the battle. Last week’s House Judiciary hearing on bills that can provide some incremental progress including the ability to get a divorce, if you are a gay couple who married in another state, demonstrate the issue is not going away.
To send a strong message that gay Americans are no longer second class citizens, it is time for the Rhode Island General Assembly to do the right thing and what the majority of Rhode Islanders according to public opinion polling want them to do and adopt marriage equality.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
Related Articles
- Ed Augustus: No Time for an Alternative to Mitt Romney
- Gallup: Healthcare Reform a Bigger Negative for Obama than Romney
- MINDSETTER ™ Ed Augustus: Mitt Romney Corporations Aren’t People
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It